Ride the Paris Metro

At approximately 4.00pm local time we landed safely at Orly – a relatively smaller airport, compared to Charles de Gaulle. It is located about 13km south of Paris and the fastest mode of transport to our apartment in the Paris’ 5th Arrondissement was by bus and the Metro.

The AAX crew waiting for their luggage

So were the rest of the passengers

There was a bit of a wait for our luggage. Nissa came to me and reported what she overheard from AA crew. Apparently there was an oversize luggage stuck somewhere on the conveyor belt causing the system to jam up. Haaa…tu dia!! Siapa lah yang punya angkara??

While I waited, I caught a glimpse of a couple who was already in argument about how they were going to the city. The wife said to take the bus whilst the hubby preferred the Metro – just like a scene one would encounter in the reality tv show the Amazing Race. I reminded myself to be extra careful over potential arguments like these. Penat lah kan if awal-awal lagi dah caught in such exhausting exchanges. Buat spoilt mood je nanti…..

Our choice the Orly Bus to Denfert-Rochereau

Anyway, we were pretty set about our travel arrangements. From my research on the Paris public transport network, the best way to get to our apartment was to ride on the airport bus to a metro exchange station first; and from then on the Metro itself.

Both Abe and I went to inquire about the bus tickets. Ohhh…suspence juga. What if the person at the counter spoke no English? How? Anyway, I decided to just give it a try with the only one liner of French I knew.

Pardon, parlez vous Anglais? (Excuse me, do you speak English?)

“Yes,” answered the big guy behind the counter.

Fuhhhh…..lega!!!

The black guy explained to us where to wait for the bus and told us that tickets could be purchased at the ticket counter next to the stop.

I smiled and said merci beaucoup to him. We then gathered the girls and started walking, luggage et all to the bus stop.

Big bikes parked along the airport exit road - the BMWs, Hondas, Ducatis

Trying to figure out what's gonna happen next after the bus ride

Rush home crawl on Paris highway

You'll see a lot of wall murals in Paris. Every available wall space is creatively scribbled

It was almost 5.00pm local time when we hit the highway on the bus and it was Paris rush hour too. Cars started to line the highway. Boleh tahan panjang juga lah queue nya, though not as bad as the end day traffic crawl like in KL.

Outside the Denfert-Rochereau station

Denfert-Rochereau metro platform

The bus dropped us at our Metro stop Denfert-Rochereau. It was time to hit the Metro from then on. Ahaaaa…that was when the challenge started - making our ticket purchase in French!! Truth be told, I didn’t bother pun making myself heard in French. Spoke in English asking for four tickets to the Censier Daubenton stop. Again luck was with us, the man at the ticket counter responded in English. He gave us our tickets and handed our change and directed us to entrance to the Metro line.

Metro wait is not long - on the average there's a metro in every 3 minutes.

We have to change lines at Palace d’ Itallie, however and then hop onto Line 7 to go to Censier Daubenton. The switching lines was trivia; we could manage that no problem. But the REAL challenge was having to lug our luggage up and down the steps at the Metro stations!!! Dahlah luggage berat, kena angkat turun naik tangga!!!!

I read about this in a Tripadvisor forum. But I didn’t expect such high flight of stairs. Ada yang kena naik sampai dua tiga lapis tangga!!!! Ohhh…I could hear my knees making cracking sounds from the luggage lifting exertion. Even Nissa had to carry a bag. Nasib baik the one she had was not as heavy as the rest.

Sortie - way out

But the Parisians were helpful. When this one guy helped me with mine, this aunty went merci, merci thanking him. Then when we arrived at our Metro exit (Sortie in French) we had another tough time bull dozing our luggage out at the turnstile. Orangnya dah out, luggage masih stuck, and that somewhat held the people flow at the exit. Nasib baik again, our struggles were spotted by the Metro authorities. They opened the larger exits for us.

Fuhhh…what a break!!! Thank God.

First sights of Parisian architechture

We emerged on the streets at the Censier Daubenton stop after being underground on the Metro. So now…where to? Turn left or turn right to our apartment? By then we were so, so exhausted. We have been on our feet for almost 24 hours and fatigue has started to wear us down.


Opppssss.....I forgot one thing - Paris was freezing cold that day when we arrived!!